back in front

A wander around Dirk Bay this afternoon produced a drake pheasant and 7 turnstones for the year (66), as well as the overwintering whimbrel and 2 great northern divers.

mute records

A brace of mute swans on Kilkeran Lake this lunchtime were new for the year (64).

lapwings!

Two lapwings sheltering on the banks of Kilkeran Lake this afternoon were a good addition to the patch year list (63) - only saw 6 of 'em last year!

glauc

A 1st winter glaucous gull at Long Strand late afternoon was a valuable year tick, while a great northern diver and several fulmars off Galley this afternoon were also new for the year (62).

the great island bird race

Today was the annual great island bird race and 9.00 am saw 5 teams set out from Kennedy Pier in Cobh for the race.  It was an excellent day weatherwise but hard work finding birds. Having won outright 2 years ago, and tied in first place last year we were up for the treble but with our usual 4th team mate swanning around in Sri Lanka and our second fiddle golden plover expert overseas in Japan we were always going to struggle.  Indeed so it turned out as we could only struggle to tie in 3rd on 88, with the 4th place team on 85. A sterling effort by HH and his team came in second with 91 but it was the usual suspects (DOS, PD & PM) who ran out the winners with a whopping 94. feckers - we'll get 'em next year!

 

Good birds were quite thin on the ground though most teams managed both glaucous, iceland and ring-billed gulls.  Bird of the day was a fine tree sparrow, a great find by 1 team and a good county record.